Christian nationalism

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church just sanctified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

From a spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Holy War, in which Russia and its people, are defending the single spiritual space of Holy Russia.

Which doesn’t surprise anyone with an acquaintance of Russian history, and its long entanglement of religion and politics. Or anyone who knows a bit of Christian history more broadly, which exhibits century after century after century of holy war against Muslims, pagan Europeans, indigenous people of other continents, Cathars, and assorted heretics. And similarly Islamic history, with its religion-driven conquest.

This is an important part of how the major religions spread throughout the world. Rulers and would-be rulers find it useful, because it lures people into thinking they are fighting for a spiritual cause, rather than a messy, political one. Even the most crooked can work that trick.

If you wonder that the trick works, consider an example. On an objective reading, the Hundred Years War is one of those long dynastic struggles between the houses of Lancaster, Valois, and Burgundy, the last two related. Shakespeare tries to make Henry V a hero, giving him words that will be repeated again and again in patriotic fervor. Was Henry anything more than a king fighting for territory and power? He wins a treaty promising him Charles VI’s lands on the latter’s death. Unsurprisingly, their sons, Henry VI and Charles VII, continue the war. There was nothing holy about it.

Unless … you’re a teenage girl from Domrémy, convinced by angelic visitation that Charles is the ruler chosen by God. I doubt many today believe in the divine right of kings. But how many swoon over the story of Jeanne la Pucelle (Joan of Arc)? All it takes is a timely religious voice to sanctify the desires of a king or strongman, to exalt the speaker as inspired, and to convince the pawns that their sacrifices are not for temporal politics, but have some larger meaning. The trick works. I suspect the majority of people in Russia laugh at Putin’s show of religious nationalism. And similarly, most Americans are stunned that anyone seriously takes Trump as somehow ordained by Jesus. Alas, small armies of devout followers carry real power. The trick works.